Bible Software

Software Name & Version (e.g., Logos Bible Software 4):

Website URL of Software:

What is the best feature of the software?

1. The design and flexibility of the interface. 5-Stars.

2. Speed. Very fast searches on individual Bibles or Multiple Bibles (Bible Sets) at one time. You can search on words, phrases, including Morphological Tags for original language resources (Greek & Hebrew), using full Boolean or RegEx syntax.

What software features do you use most?

2. Compare (Parallel View) of as many Bibles as you can fit in your screen.

3. Personal Topics & Notes - Creating, Searching and Printing.

What is your primary use for the software?

As a Pastor I enjoy using one of the multiple saved layouts with features turned off for simple reading of the Bible or a resource. Or, I can activate more features for full blown Bible research across multiple Bible versions or original language resources Bibles, Commentaries, Dictionaries, and Books.

How long have you used the software?

1-3 years.

My Review

theWord 3.2.1 is FREE Bible software developed by one author, Costas Stergiou. It runs in multiple languages on Windows platform. It can be configured to run on Linux or Mac using Wine or similar, though not officially supported on these platforms. However, unofficial help for Linux or Mac users can be obtained via the online forum for theWord.

There are two types of views: Bible View and Book View. Book View displays any resource you have installed that is not a Bible. You can have multiple windows of both types of views open at any one time. As a consequence there are two types of Search Views: Bible Search and Book Search respectively. There can be multiple search views open at once and searches can be performed across multiple resources at one time.

theWord also provides the ability to create your own resources that can all be searched or printed out. This allows you to maintain all of your study material and notes in one place, ready to read, search on, or print out at as needed.

3. Support. Official support is via the Online Forum. The author is very helpful and very quick to respond generally within 24 hrs or less.

4. Flexibility. From a simple single Bible view layout for personal reading, or full blown multiple view Bibles, Commentaries, Dictionaries and Books. Multiple default layouts to choose from depending on your needs (simple to complex) or you can create and save as many user layouts as you wish.

5. Resources. There are the usual free Bibles in various languages, free original language texts (Greek or Hebrew), free original language dictionaries and lexicons, as well as many free Commentaries, Books and Maps.

The paid resource modules available will cover the needs of most who are used to using resources from some of the better known commercial packages available.

Cons

1. None that standout. The only cons amount to feature requests that tend to come from power users.

2. No Bible Reading Plan feature but due in next release.

Would you recommend this to a friend?

Yes

Mary Fairchild, About.com Christianity, says:

It's great to read a pastor's perspective on this software. Thanks, Paul!